History of the USSR

The first act of the Soviet state in effect formulated the prime
principles of Soviet foreign policy – socialist internationalism and
the peaceful coexistence of states with different social structures.

The socialist revolution in Russia confirmed one of the most important
tenets of Marxism – that the laboring masses are the vehicle of history
and that their active and conscious role after liberation from
oppression and exploitation will constantly grow.

The Soviet power established by the October Socialist Revolution is one
of the forms of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The new state
differed fundamentally from the bourgeois state not only in the forms
of state organization, but above all in the historical role that it
played.

From the first days of its existence, the Soviet government struggled
actively for the conclusion of peace. On November 8, the People’s
Commissariat for Foreign Affairs sent an official note to the
governments of the warring states proposing that peace negotiations be
started. The note was handed to the ambassadors and emissaries of the
allied states, published in the Soviet press and repeatedly broadcast
over radio. A few days later, the Soviet Republic sent a note to
countries not participating in the war (Sweden, Norway, Spain, Denmark
and others) asking them to assist in beginning peace negotiations.

The Soviet government three times (November 28, December 6 and January
30) sent notes and appeals directly to the governments of the United
States, Britain, France and other powers proposing that peace
negotiations be commenced. However, the political leaders of the
Entente countries and the United States responded to none of these
notes. The ambassadors of Britain, the United States, France, Italy and
other countries accredited to Russia, acting in conformity with
instructions received from their governments, decided not to establish
any relations with the Soviet government. For instance, on November 18
the US Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, instructed his ambassador
not to respond to any of the Soviet peace proposals. The British
Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, stated that the British government did
not intend to recognize the government of Lenin but would support the
Cossacks and the Ukrainians, i.e., Kaledin and the counterrevolutionary
Central Rada. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pichon, announced
at a session of the Chamber of Deputies that France would maintain no
relations with the Soviet government and would not conduct negotiations
toward peace.

The Inter-Allied Conference in Paris at the end of November, 1917,
adopted the same resolution. The heads of the governments and the
ministers representing the interests of the financial and industrial
circles of Britain, France, the United States and other countries
wished to have no dealings with the worker-peasant government of
Russia, which had infringed upon the “sacred” right of private
property; conclusion of a democratic peace without annexations or
reparations–the banner under which they were conducting the war–did not
suit them.

Soviet Russia’s proposals for peace were rejected by the governments of
the Entente countries, but they were supported by the working people
and many progressive organizations in Europe, Asia and America. Though
the bourgeois press distorted the character of events in Russia, the
decrees on peace and on land, the information on the Soviet state’s
peace proposals,\ became known and the sympathies of the working people
for the Soviet Republic became ever more clear.